Turkey Will Soon Launch a “Mobile Naval Mine”

The chairman of Albayrak Savunma, Mustafa Adnan Albayrak, announced that within 3 months the company will officially launch the Turkey’s first indigenous armed underwater drone – “a mobile naval mine” – developed under the Wattozz program, reported Defense News.

Albayrak Savunma, a drone manufacturer, has worked for the past two years under the Wattozz program together with one of the outstanding Turkish universities – Karadeniz Technical University. Wattozz (“vatoz”) means stingray in Turkish, and the developed underwater drone of titanium and aluminium looks like a stingray. The Turkish drone manufacturer says that it can blow up any warship, which is controlled remotely.

The “stingray” is controlled by encrypted acoustic sound waves and is equipped with two cameras instead of “eyes” and three integrated engines. Its maximum speed that it can reach is 5.5 knots. It can cruise up to 12 hours. The underwater drone is intended for surveillance or assault missions and it can transfer explosives. It is designed to stick itself under the hull of a vessel through electromagnetic magnets. It features also a sleep mode and may stay inactive on the seabed. Electromagnetic and ultrasound signals protect it against underwater animals.

AeroVironment Announces a New Switchblade Order

On 22nd May 2018, the manufacturer of unmanned aircraft systems for both military and commercial purposes, AeroVironment, Inc., announced that it has received an order from the U.S. Army for the Switchblade Lethal Miniature Aerial Missile System (LMAMS) and logistics support. That takes the total value of Switchblade awards to $111,054,202 since August 2017. The agreement has been concluded in April 2018 and involves the first Switchblade order for the needs of the United States Marine Corps.

The vice president and general manager of the Unmanned Aircraft Systems business segment of AeroVironment, Kirk Flittie, explained “Switchblade is a highly effective and mature smart weapon system that delivers unmatched force protection and precision strike capabilities to American forces with minimal to no collateral effects. Man-portable and lightweight, Switchblade is a uniquely powerful LMAMS solution for today’s complex combat environments. AeroVironment stands ready, with a battle-proven product, supply chain and production system, to respond rapidly to this and future requirements to ensure U.S. and allied forces can proceed with certainty.”

The AeroVironment Switchblade features rapid-response force protection. The strike is precise with a range of up to 10 km from the launch location. Besides its extremely preciseness, it has specialized effects and wave-off capability and impresses with its compact dimensions – it fits in an ALICE pack and weighs about 2.5 kg. The warheads of the Switchblade are supplied by the Orbital ATK – a global leader in the aerospace and defence technologies sector.

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Lockheed Martin Awarded BAE Systems a $100 Million+ Contract

The global security and aerospace company, Lockheed Martin, has awarded BAE Systems a contract exceeding the amount of $100 million. The duties of BAE Systems under the contract include maintenance and replacement of the F-35 Lightning II fighter aircraft electronic warfare systems, reported FlightGlobal.

The scope of the contract includes management of the supply chain for the electronic warfare system and maintenance of local warehouses with on-hand inventories of major components.

BAE Systems is the manufacturer of the electronic warfare suite for the needs of the F-35 of Lockheed Martin, known as the AN/ASQ-239 Barracuda system. The avionics and sensors of the system provide a 360-degree view of the area surrounding the aircraft, detecting and geo-locating electronic emitters for giving the pilots the opportunity of evading, engaging, countering or jamming threats. All these capabilities are of great importance in terms of the purposes for which the F-35 Lightning II fighter aircraft has been designed, and namely – ground attack and air superiority missions.

BAE Systems specified that the contract has been agreed to be based on performance-based logistics and that repair and upgrade of the ASQ-239 is included. Under the contract we will see the company supporting all F-35 versions and customers all over the world.

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Navantia Australia and BAE Systems Join Forces to Maintain AWDs

Navantia Australia revealed on 18th May 2018 that it has entered into an agreement with BAE Systems for the maintenance of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) Hobart-class air warfare destroyers (AWDs). The contract was signed on 15th May 2018 and it completes the membership of the DDG Enterprise.

The DDG Emterprise has been established to provide a capability enhancing value for money for the RAN. As a member of the Enterprise, Navantia Australia will work with BAE Systems, Raytheon Australia, and Thales Australia.

The managing director of Navantia Australia, Mr Donato Martinez, said, “Navantia Australia is proud to be part of the DDG Enterprise and looks forward to continuing to support the Royal Australia Navy both now and long into the future.”

The duties of Navantia Australia under the agreement will include provision of substantial ship, product and supply chain knowledge. The company will also add an additional fourteen design and engineering experts into the Guided Missile Destroyer (DDG) enterprise.

Mr Warren King, the chairman of Navantia Australia, added, “As the designer, and shipbuilding services manager of the Hobart Class under the AWD reform program, it was important for Navantia to be part of the DDG enterprise, tasked with sustaining this magnificent capability through its life.”

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Persistent Systems Signed a Wave Relay Contract with Raytheon

On 16th May, Persistent Systems, LLC – the developer, manufacturer, and integrator of the patented and secure Mobile Ad Hoc Networking (MANET) system, Wave Relay®, announced that they have signed a 5-year contract with Raytheon. The scope of the contract is integration of the MANET technology into the Raytheon’s family of manned and unmanned systems and sensors.

Persistent Systems is headquartered in New York City since 2007 and is a worldwide communications technology company. Its CEO, Herbert Rubens, said about the concluded deal that “Persistent’s vision is to empower the soldier via the network. The real winner today is the soldier on the ground. As industry leaders, such as Raytheon, incorporate Wave Relay® technology into their systems and sensors, the soldiers gain massively increased capability without having to carry any additional weight. The advanced systems that Raytheon is developing will improve situational awareness, protect our soldiers, and make them more effective.”

Wave Relay® enhances connectivity and communication performance through quick and continuous adapting to the fluctuations in a given terrain and other environmental conditions.

It was also revealed from the company that integration of the system has already been started.

John Hobday, of Raytheon Advanced Concepts, emphasized, “Over the next 5 years, the battlefield will experience a transformational infusion of autonomy, collaborative behaviors, swarming, and artificial intelligence. A scalable, dynamic, peer-to-peer communication system with edge computing will provide the foundation on which these technologies will be built.”

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